Man of Smoke
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| Author | Aldo Palazzeschi |
|---|---|
| Original title | Il codice di Perelà |
| Language | Italian |
| Publisher | Edizioni futuriste di Poesia |
Publication date | 1911 |
| Publication place | Italy |
Published in English | 1936 |
| Pages | 277 |
Man of Smoke (Italian: Il codice di Perelà, lit. 'The Code of Perelà') is a novel by the Italian writer Aldo Palazzeschi, first published by Edizioni futuriste di Poesia in 1911 and revised by the author in 1920, 1943 and 1954. The novel is a futurist social satire about a man who is made of light smoke, initially received as a bringer of a golden age and tasked with creating a new legal code, before the public turns against him. No legal code is laid out by the main character, but critics have discussed the possible existence of an enciphered code between the lines of the novel. Critical response has emphasised the novel's social themes and sense of humour.
Plot
[edit]The novel is about the man Perelà, who is made of light smoke and appears through a chimney in an unnamed city at the age of 33. He is discovered by the king's soldiers and interrogated. He receives his name from the first syllables in the names of three centenarian women: Pena, Rete and Lama.
Brought to the royal court, he is received as a revelation and a purifying force, due to his creation from fire and message of "lightness".[1] He quickly gains an enthusiastic following among people and rulers, who regard him as a bringer of a golden age, sent by divine providence. This makes him suitable to create a new legal code for the kingdom to follow, a task that comes to be expected from him although he barely says anything and does nothing at his own initiative.
With time, the excitement dies and people become sceptical of Perelà. An old palace servant, Alloro, commits suicide by fire in a failed attempt to also become a man made of smoke. Perelà's indifference to Alloro's death, and his own role in inspiring the man's action, arouses anger. Perelà is eventually put on trial, where he only responds to accusations by saying "I am light",[1] and sentenced to life in prison. He is mocked and humiliated by the public on his way to his punishment.
Major themes
[edit]The literary scholar Anthony Julian Tamburri describes the novel as anti-realist and as an allegory about how strict norms and conventions make it impossible for a man like Perelà to participate in society. Although Perelà never lays out any legal code in the novel, literary critics, notably Luigi Baldacci, have argued that there is such a code hidden between the lines, and the novel makes a point about how the public fails to perceive this. Tamburri writes that the novel tasks the reader with piecing together the fragments of Perelà's code, which is enciphered throughout the story's characters and episodes.[2]
Publication
[edit]Man of Smoke was first published in Italy in 1911 by Edizioni futuriste di Poesia. Palazzeschi made revised versions published in 1920, 1943 and 1954. The first three versions were published as Il codice di Perelà (lit. 'The Code of Perelà') and the fourth as Perelà uomo di fumo (lit. 'Perelà Man of Smoke').[2] A version in English by Peter M. Riccio, titled Perela: The Man of Smoke and described as an adaptation, was published in 1936.[3] Italica Press published an English translation by Nicolas J. Perella and Ruggero Stefanini in 1992.[4]
Reception
[edit]
There are few futurist novels, and along with Mafarka the Futurist by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Man of Smoke is the one that has received the most attention over the years.[5] In 1992, Publishers Weekly called it a "rewarding and critically important modernist tale" with "deft social commentary and irony".[1] In Italica, Paschal Viglionese highlighted allusions to Inferno and The Decameron and how the book combines serious social themes with "the comic, the irreverent, the bizarre, and the grotesque".[6] Tamburri writes that Man of Smoke contrasts greatly to the conventional Italian literature of its time, a trait it shares with the poetry Palazzeschi otherwise was known for, to which the novel works as a companion piece. Tamburri regards Man of Smoke as an outline for Palazzeschi's later futurist manifesto Il controdolore.[2]
The book was the basis for the opera Perelà, uomo di fumo composed by Pascal Dusapin, which premiered in 2003.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Man of Smoke". Publishers Weekly. 4 May 1992. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- ^ a b c Tamburri, Anthony Julian (2006). "Il codice di Perelà, 1911". Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Routledge. pp. 1136–1137. ISBN 9781135455309.
- ^ Kazin, Alfred (31 May 1993). "An Italian Parable Of Human Folly; PERELA: THE MAN OF SMOKE. Adapted from the Italian of Aldo Palazzeschi by Peter M. Riccio. 278 pp. New York: S.F. Vani. $2.50. An Italian Parable". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- ^ Healey, Robin (1998). Twentieth-century Italian Literature in English Translation: An Annotated Bibliography 1929-1997. University of Toronto Press. p. 401. ISBN 9780802008008.
- ^ Donnarumma, Raffaele (2004). "Palazzeschi e 'Il codice di Perelà'. Narrare nell'avanguardia". Belfagor (in Italian). 59 (4): 446. JSTOR 26150174.
- ^ Viglionese, Paschal (1995). "Aldo Palazzeschi. Man of Smoke". Italica. 72 (4): 532–534. doi:10.2307/480183.
- ^ Cadenhead, Frank (February 2003). "Perelà, uomo di fumo". Andante (review of the Paris premiere). Archived from the original on 7 March 2005.
Further reading
[edit]- Tamburri, Anthony Julian (1990). "Il codice di Perelà, [anti]romanzo (futurista)". Of Saltimbanchi and Incendiari: Aldo Palazzeschi and avant-gardism in Italy. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp. 127–172. ISBN 0-8386-3375-7.
External links
[edit]- Project Gutenberg (1920 version, Italian)
- Italica Press